Going 10 Rounds — Round One

The bout billed as the Fight to Save Boxing – Floyd Mayweather Jr. v. Oscar de la Hoya – only gave the troubled sport another black eye.

Although some will try to fool you into thinking that the split decision allowed it to live up to the hype – and it did set an all-time pay-per-view record – boxing insiders can’t hide their disappointment with the performance.

Supporters will say it was a good fight. That’s the problem: it was supposed to be a great fight, one of the best of all-time. It fell decidedly short.

De La Hoya has appeared more interested in his promotion company (Golden Boy) than his fighting career, as evidenced by losses in three of his last five fights and five of his last 12. In his defense, at least de la Hoya has been willing to face top competition. Those losses came at the hands of Mayweather, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley (twice) and Felix Trinidad.

HBO misled its viewers with round-by-round punch counts, which made Mayweather appear to be well ahead on the scorecards. In reality, he did just enough to score and stay out of harm’s way. Mayweather holds the sport’s pound-for-pound title, but seems destined to be another Roy Jones Jr. And that’s not meant as a compliment.

It says here that if de la Hoya hadn’t abandoned his jab or run out of gas in the 10th round, he would have retained his WBC light middleweight title by majority draw.